Two people have died and 490 were injured amid strong winds and rainfall brought by Typhoon Krathon, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday as of 9pm.
The typhoon finally made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at 12:40pm yesterday after lingering off the nation’s southwest coast.
A video uploaded by a Kaohsiung resident to Facebook showed that an apartment’s rain shade flew away, because of strong winds.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Another video showed the wind causing a cart selling betel nut to slide down the road.
Other videos showed severe flooding in the city’s Sanming (三民) and Kushan (鼓山) districts.
Glass doors were also shattered by the wind, with one video showing the front of a Hi-Life convenience store in the city’s Chienjin District (前金) completely broken. Elsewhere, employees of Grand Hilai Kaohsiung hotel were mobilized to physically support the glass doors so that they would not break.
Photo: CNA
Rain in northern Taiwan began to intensify yesterday as the typhoon moved north after the landfall. Flooding and mudflow were reported in multiple places in Keelung.
By 5:30pm yesterday, two people had died, 219 had sustained injuries and one person was reported missing, the center said.
Water supply was unavailable at 404,673 households, while 164,805 households were left without electricity, it said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Eighty-three mobile phone base stations also needed to be repaired, the center said.
Nearly 2,000 people remained in shelters, it said.
Public transport also continued to be disrupted by the typhoon. A total of 469 domestic and international flights were canceled yesterday, while railway services at certain sections were canceled, the center said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
As of 6pm yesterday, Krathon’s center was 30km northeast of Kaohsiung, moving north at 6kph, data from the Central Weather Administration (CWA) showed. The storm’s radius had shrunk from 220km to 180km. The maximum wind speed near the center had also dropped to 108km.
Krathon has been downgraded to a tropical depression, as its structure had been damaged by the typography after landing in Kaohsiung, the CWA said.
Although Krathon is expected to weaken further as it heads north, residents living in the south of Taoyuan, as well as Nantou, Yilan, Hualien, Taitung and Penghu counties should still be on alert for disasters that it could cause, the CWA said.
Photo: CNA
As of 5:50pm, the highest accumulated rainfall in the past three days was recorded in Taitung County’s Jinfong Township (金峰), reaching 1,284mm.
It was followed by Tahanshan (大漢山) and Naner (南鵝) in Taitung County, with accumulated rainfall topping 1,225mm and 1,204mm. However, 576mm of rain poured into New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) yesterday alone as of 5pm, making it the highest recorded rainfall.
Photo courtesy of the Highway Bureau
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS